Rookywriters Book Reviews

Review 42 @NextlifeDreams

Book: Beside Like A Shadow
Author: NextlifeDreams

REVIEW

1. First chapter blues

*  Summary / prologue - Summary seems a little out of place. Put the sentences together in one place. Try rephrasing the sentences and use more catchy emotion word to pass the relevant information across readers.

*  Intro to main character - Intro to main character was not fully appreciated.

*  Intro to story - First chapter has four parts which is too much to begin with. Mostly first chapters introduces the main character and a few main issues to grip readers.

The first chapter felt rushed and summarized. Unless you want it to be prologue if not, try exploring the scenes more clearly, let's get to meet the characters in their own worlds.

*  Intro to genre - Good intro to genre.

2. Story Settings

*  Description There's little of no description of how the characters look. The male characters maybe popular idols but there is need to describe them especially what they wear, there hair style and color and skin shade.
Also Zainab, Hitman and a few side characters needed a few descriptions to know how they looked like at different times of the day.

*  Theme - Obviously theme of love and romance.

*  Intrigue / Suspense factor - Most fan fiction basically have little intriguing of suspense factor since most readers already know how the story will end.

*  Relation to genre - story is related to the genre fan fiction.

*  Time setting - Timing is observed in the story.

*  Character development - Good character development. The male idols names can get confusing at times if more than four or five of them is mentioned in a chapter. Also careful with using random nicknames at odd times.

3. Story Tone

*  Grammar - Good grammar. Simple diction for the story. For punctuations, quotation marks comes after a full stop or comma.

Wrong
"Can I get a cap or something to cover my head?".

Correct
"Can I get a cap or something to cover my head?"

Wrong
"You may come with the staffs, Jungkook will be with us".

Correct
"You may come with the staffs, Jungkook will be with us."

*  Dialogue - Dialogues between the characters is engaging.

*  Choice of words - Good choice of words for the story.

*  Chapter flow - Story flowed naturally from chapter to chapter.

*  Writing voice - Writer has a good story telling voice.

4. Creativity

*  Plot development - I saw some chapters were it was mentioned some of the characters were real and pointing out some real issues surrounding K-pop you want to point out in your story. Well, real life is real life, a story is a story. Your writing a simple fan fiction story not a documentary. You might want to pick one issue and work it through the story.

*  Writing style - Writer has a story telling style of writing.

5. Personal thoughts - The title is quite catchy and different for a bts fan fiction. The book cover is simple. Story concept is catchy and the scenes are gripping.

*  Overall - Good story idea. Good plotting. You get a 10 out of 10!